The Pit [160]
office, one of the heads of a great banking house, and a couple of other men--confidential agents, who had helped to manipulate the great corner.
"But you can't," Gretry was exclaiming. "You can't; don't you see we can't meet our margin calls? It's the end of the game. You've got no more money."
"It's a lie!" Never so long as he lived did Landry forget the voice in which Jadwin cried the words: "It's a lie! Keep on buying, I tell you. Take all they'll offer. I tell you we'll touch the two dollar mark before noon."
"Not another order goes up to that floor," retorted Gretry. "Why, J., ask any of these gentlemen here. They'll tell you."
"It's useless, Mr. Jadwin," said the banker, quietly. "You were practically beaten two days ago."
"Mr. Jadwin," pleaded the senior clerk, "for God's sake listen to reason. Our firm----"
But Jadwin was beyond all appeal. He threw off Gretry's hand.
"Your firm, your firm--you've been cowards from the start. I know you, I know you. You have sold me out. Crookes has bought you. Get out of my way!" he shouted. "Get out of my way! Do you hear? I'll play my hand alone from now on."
"J., old man--why--see here, man," Gretry implored, still holding him by the arm; "here, where are you going?"
Jadwin's voice rang like a trumpet call:
_"Into the Pit."_
"Look here--wait--here. Hold him back gentlemen. He don't know what he's about."
"If you won't execute my orders, I'll act myself. I'm going into the Pit, I tell you."
"J., you're mad, old fellow. You're ruined--don't you understand?--you're ruined."
"Then God curse you, Sam Gretry, for the man who failed me in a crisis." And as he spoke Curtis Jadwin struck the broker full in the face.
Gretry staggered back from the blow, catching at the edge of his desk. His pale face flashed to crimson for an instant, his fists clinched; then his hands fell to his sides.
"No," he said, "let him go, let him go. The man is merely mad."
But, Jadwin, struggling for a second in the midst of the group that tried to hold him, suddenly flung off the restraining clasps, thrust the men to one side, and rushed from the room.
Gretry dropped into his chair before his desk.
"It's the end," he said, simply.
He drew a sheet of note paper to him, and in a shaking hand wrote a couple of lines.
"Take that," he said, handing the note to the senior clerk, "take that to the secretary of the Board at once."
And straight into the turmoil and confusion of the Pit, to the scene of so many of his victories, the battle ground whereon again and again, his enemies routed, he had remained the victor undisputed, undismayed came the "Great Bull." No sooner had he set foot within the entrance to the Floor, than the news went flashing and flying from lip to lip. The galleries knew it, the public room, and the Western Union knew it, the telephone booths knew it, and lastly even the Wheat Pit, torn and tossed and rent asunder by the force this man himself had unchained, knew it, and knowing stood dismayed.
For even then, so great had been his power, so complete his dominion, and so well-rooted the fear which he had inspired, that this last move in the great game he had been playing, this unexpected, direct, personal assumption of control struck a sense of consternation into the heart of the hardiest of his enemies.
Jadwin himself, the great man, the "Great Bull" in the Pit! What was about to happen? Had they been too premature in their hope of his defeat? Had he been preparing some secret, unexpected manoeuvre? For a second they hesitated, then moved by a common impulse, feeling the push of the wonderful new harvest behind them, they gathered themselves together for the final assault, and again offered the wheat for sale; offered it by thousands upon thousands of bushels; poured, as it were, the reapings of entire principalities out upon the floor of the Board of Trade.
Jadwin was in the thick of the confusion by now. And the avalanche, the undiked Ocean of the Wheat, leaping to the lash of the hurricane,
"But you can't," Gretry was exclaiming. "You can't; don't you see we can't meet our margin calls? It's the end of the game. You've got no more money."
"It's a lie!" Never so long as he lived did Landry forget the voice in which Jadwin cried the words: "It's a lie! Keep on buying, I tell you. Take all they'll offer. I tell you we'll touch the two dollar mark before noon."
"Not another order goes up to that floor," retorted Gretry. "Why, J., ask any of these gentlemen here. They'll tell you."
"It's useless, Mr. Jadwin," said the banker, quietly. "You were practically beaten two days ago."
"Mr. Jadwin," pleaded the senior clerk, "for God's sake listen to reason. Our firm----"
But Jadwin was beyond all appeal. He threw off Gretry's hand.
"Your firm, your firm--you've been cowards from the start. I know you, I know you. You have sold me out. Crookes has bought you. Get out of my way!" he shouted. "Get out of my way! Do you hear? I'll play my hand alone from now on."
"J., old man--why--see here, man," Gretry implored, still holding him by the arm; "here, where are you going?"
Jadwin's voice rang like a trumpet call:
_"Into the Pit."_
"Look here--wait--here. Hold him back gentlemen. He don't know what he's about."
"If you won't execute my orders, I'll act myself. I'm going into the Pit, I tell you."
"J., you're mad, old fellow. You're ruined--don't you understand?--you're ruined."
"Then God curse you, Sam Gretry, for the man who failed me in a crisis." And as he spoke Curtis Jadwin struck the broker full in the face.
Gretry staggered back from the blow, catching at the edge of his desk. His pale face flashed to crimson for an instant, his fists clinched; then his hands fell to his sides.
"No," he said, "let him go, let him go. The man is merely mad."
But, Jadwin, struggling for a second in the midst of the group that tried to hold him, suddenly flung off the restraining clasps, thrust the men to one side, and rushed from the room.
Gretry dropped into his chair before his desk.
"It's the end," he said, simply.
He drew a sheet of note paper to him, and in a shaking hand wrote a couple of lines.
"Take that," he said, handing the note to the senior clerk, "take that to the secretary of the Board at once."
And straight into the turmoil and confusion of the Pit, to the scene of so many of his victories, the battle ground whereon again and again, his enemies routed, he had remained the victor undisputed, undismayed came the "Great Bull." No sooner had he set foot within the entrance to the Floor, than the news went flashing and flying from lip to lip. The galleries knew it, the public room, and the Western Union knew it, the telephone booths knew it, and lastly even the Wheat Pit, torn and tossed and rent asunder by the force this man himself had unchained, knew it, and knowing stood dismayed.
For even then, so great had been his power, so complete his dominion, and so well-rooted the fear which he had inspired, that this last move in the great game he had been playing, this unexpected, direct, personal assumption of control struck a sense of consternation into the heart of the hardiest of his enemies.
Jadwin himself, the great man, the "Great Bull" in the Pit! What was about to happen? Had they been too premature in their hope of his defeat? Had he been preparing some secret, unexpected manoeuvre? For a second they hesitated, then moved by a common impulse, feeling the push of the wonderful new harvest behind them, they gathered themselves together for the final assault, and again offered the wheat for sale; offered it by thousands upon thousands of bushels; poured, as it were, the reapings of entire principalities out upon the floor of the Board of Trade.
Jadwin was in the thick of the confusion by now. And the avalanche, the undiked Ocean of the Wheat, leaping to the lash of the hurricane,